Why advertisers are finally buying into shoppable TV

For the latest edition of our Future of TV Briefing, available exclusively to Digiday+ members, senior media editor Tim Peterson [looks at how shoppable TV is moving from being a shiny new toy to potentially becoming a staple of the TV and streaming business.]( In this week's Media Briefing, another member exclusive, publishing reporter Sara Guaglione [explores what Bustle and Teen Vogue are doing to make sure their Instagram accounts don’t contribute to the platform’s reported negative impact on teen girls’ wellbeing](. You can get a taste below and [subscribe to Digiday+]( annually for about $1 a day for full access to all briefings as well as original research, reports and guides, tutorials, unlimited stories and much more. [Future of TV Briefing: Why advertisers are finally buying into shoppable TV]( By Tim Peterson Buying from the big screen The key hits: - The pandemic pushed people to get more accustomed to online shopping and QR codes — both of which helped to pave the way for shoppable TV. - Advertisers are largely still testing TV campaigns that feature a way for people to purchase a product through the ad. - Some advertisers are seeing shoppable TV ads’ performance meet — and even exceed — more digital and retail media formats. - Measurement still needs to be sorted out for shoppable TV ads to gain broader adoption. Shoppable TV is far from new, but the ability for people to purchase products from their TV screens is entering a new era. As the pandemic has made QR codes and online shopping more commonplace, shoppable TV is moving beyond the confines of QVC and 1-800 ads. “It may appear that shoppable TV has existed but not like this at all,” said entrepreneur Joy Mangano. Mangano would know. As documented in the movie “Joy,” she has been one of the foremost faces of shoppable TV for decades, having invented the Miracle Mop and Huggable Hangers, of which she [sold more than 157,000 sets in a single day]( in November 2014. Now she is working with NBCUniversal on “America’s Big Deal,” a live competition show that will premiere on USA Network on Oct. 14 and that indicates this new era of shoppable TV. In each episode of “America’s Big Deal,” entrepreneurs will pitch their products in hopes of securing distribution deals with HSN/QVC, Lowe’s or Macy’s. What will determine a pitch’s success is how many live viewers purchase the product during the episode through NBCUniversal’s NBCUniversal Checkout platform by scanning an on-screen QR code with their phone. “This has never been done before,” said Mangano, an executive producer on the show. She added, “I know. I’m in this industry for over 25 years.” What we've heard “[Connected TV] hardware manufacturers in general want first look when they might consider it to be their user on their hardware. So they’ve developed different mechanisms like their bidder integrated into publishers’ ad stacks to both receive their inventory share and buy back inventory when it’s a known user on their hardware.” — Streaming ad tech executive on CTV device and smart TV makers angling to sell apps’ ad inventory Subscribe to Digiday+ below to access the full briefing. [SUBSCRIBE]( [Media Briefing: How publishers with teen audiences are making their Instagram presences more inclusive]( By Tim Peterson Instagram influencers The key hits: - Bustle and Teen Vogue focus on sharing uplifting content and original stories — and offer a counterweight to harmful user-generated content. - Both publications rely on their teams, that reflect their audiences, to ensure content shared on social media is positive and inclusive. - Teen Vogue allows staffers to review copy and raise concerns or suggest alternate language on sensitive topics. - Bustle’s social media editors are trained on its Inclusivity Guide, an editorial style guide that covers gender, sexuality, race and disability, with a glossary of terms to avoid that could be “harmful or stigmatizing” and alternatives to use. The damning Wall Street Journal report sharing internal Facebook documents [revealed]( the negative impact of Instagram usage on teen girls’ body image and mental health. It also raises the question: Do publishers with a young female audience and a large social media following have a responsibility to take into account the risks of social media content on teen girls’ self image? Yes, definitely. And outlets like Bustle and Teen Vogue, which have millions of followers on Instagram apiece, have taken steps to tend to that responsibility, such as adhering to inclusivity guides and crowd-sourcing copy among staff members. “Young girls aren’t turning to print subscriptions of Vogue for beauty standards. They are turning to Instagram for that, with millions of options of images,” said Madeline Hill, who has previously worked on social media teams at Teen Vogue and Entertainment Weekly and is now a freelance social media strategist and consultant (and was once a model). Because of this, media companies with a young audience have a “responsibility” to have guidelines in place and not “push unrealistic beauty standards” in their social media posts, she said. Posts shared on platforms like Instagram “tend to idealize very specific, non-inclusive standards of beauty,” said Danielle Kwateng, executive editor at Teen Vogue, which has 3.5 million followers on Instagram. But Teen Vogue’s goal is to “uplift young people,” so deciding how topics like health and body image are covered, the language used, the photos shared and the models cast for photoshoots has to be “intentional,” she said. “We spend a lot of time ideating about who to profile by keeping body size inclusivity, diversity and disabled visibility in mind,” Kwateng said. What we've heard “Our dev team has completely optimized our ad infrastructure. Everything is faster, so we’re loading more quality impressions. We’re seeing four to five million more impressions on the same inventory as the same time last just because of making things better because we had the time.” — Publishing executive on the impact of programmatic housekeeping Subscribe to Digiday+ below to access the full briefing. [SUBSCRIBE]( Further reading - [TikTok’s latest good news: its ads are sticky and effective, and rich people spend a lot of time there]( Research conducted by consumer insights platform Disqo found that TikTok ads are not only stickier than the average social platform, they also show a higher propensity to generate action taken because of the ad. - [Why some advertisers could be reluctant to get on board with Google’s modeled measurement train]( Google is steering advertisers away from measuring ad performance based on what people clicked on last. But the company could have an uphill battle when it comes to convincing some advertisers that its shift to an approach using analytical models to gauge ad results is better. - [IAB Europe suspends consent management firms as global privacy authorities signal tougher action]( Data privacy was was on the agenda when data protection authorities of the G7 member countries met in early September, and issued a dispatch that included a tough assessment of the way most websites get people to agree to tracking. [SUBSCRIBE]( [Facebook]([Twitter]([Instagram]([LinkedIn]( Digiday+ can help me do my job better [DISAGREE]( [NEUTRAL]( [AGREE]( [Share]( [Tweet]( [Share]( [Forward]( Digiday Media One Liberty Plaza | 9th Floor New York, NY 10006 You received this email because you're a part of the Digiday community. Unsubscribing will remove you from ALL Digiday email. [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](